Will Fly, no apologies necessary, I LOVE this kind of thread!

...decayed but it would have been there for a decade which, even among the educated middle classes, seems to be prounounced the same rather than dec-ade.

Over here it is dee-KAYD and DEK-ayd

RogPeek, I could hear my old Latin & English teacher, Mrs. Worcester, in my ear when I read ...of words like 'of'. She cringed whenever we used "like" that way and tell us to use "such as" but I know NO ONE over here abides by that any more, which I guess is lucky for those of us who like to write stories and books.:-)